What This Feature Does

The bulk territory tool allows you to create drive-time or radius-based territories for multiple locations at once.

Instead of building territories one by one, you can generate boundaries for entire sets of locations—whether they were:

• Imported

• Manually created

• Saved from POI searches

This function underpins two core site selection and territory planning workflows: whitespace analysis and network coverage analysis.

Whitespace analysis identifies areas with population but limited competitive coverage—providing a starting point for selecting new retail sites or defining new franchise territories.

Network coverage analysis reveals where existing locations fall short of reaching target populations, helping identify gaps in coverage and opportunities to strengthen a network.

How Bulk Territory Creation Works

Bulk territory creation operates at the folder level.

Any POIs saved in a folder—whether categorized as General, Competitor, or Ally—can be used to generate territories in a single action.

This is the first step for both network coverage and whitespace analysis: start by saving all relevant locations into a folder.

For network coverage analysis, these POIs represent your:

• Current locations

• Planned or candidate locations

You can add these locations by:

• Searching using the POI tool

• Manually placing markers on the map

• Bulk importing locations using the import tool

(Pro users can import unlimited POIs.)

For whitespace analysis, these POIs typically represent:

• Competitor locations within your market

Best Practice: Organize by Use Case

We recommend using separate folders for each type of analysis.

Most users will run both workflows: it’s critical to both understand competitive coverage and whether your locations have adequately reached your target demographic. Keeping them in separate folders makes analysis and visualization significantly easier:

• One folder for your network locations

• One folder for competitor locations

This allows you to quickly switch between coverage and whitespace views without mixing data.

How to Access the Bulk Territory Tool

1. Click the “New” button

2. Select “Create new item”

3. In the menu, locate the final option (two GPS icons) — this is the bulk action tool

4. Select this option to open the bulk territory menu

Choosing a Territory Type

After opening the bulk tool, you’ll see two options:

• Radius (Buffer) → fixed-distance territories

• Isochrone (Clock Icon) → drive-time or travel-time territories

Creating Radius (Buffer) Territories

1. Select the radius (buffer) option

2. Enter a distance in kilometers

3. Click Add

This will create a buffer around every location in the selected folder.

Each buffer represents a fixed geographic reach from that location.

Creating Isochrone (Drive-Time) Territories

1. Select the isochrone (clock icon) option

2. Choose a transport mode:

   • Walking

   • Cycling

   • Driving

   • Driving in traffic

3. Enter a time value (in minutes)

4. Click Add

This will create a travel-time boundary around each location, reflecting how far a customer can realistically travel.

What Happens After Creation

Once created:

• Each territory appears as an individual shape on the map

• All shapes are tied to the original folder of locations

• Each territory behaves like any other shape in PopEx

This means you can immediately:

• View population and income metrics

• Compare territories side-by-side

• Use them in further analysis

How Bulk Territories Enable Analysis

Beyond simply measuring population across multiple locations, bulk territory assignment enables deeper comparative analysis—making it possible to evaluate coverage, identify gaps, and forecast performance across an entire network.

Network Coverage Analysis

Generate territories for all your locations, then enable the population density heat map to visualize:

• Where coverage overlaps — areas at risk for cannibalization

• Where gaps exist — areas that may require additional locations

This provides a clear view of how effectively your current network reaches your target population.

Read our network coverage analysis of Jersey Mike’s (a master class in network coverage). 

Whitespace Identification

Generate territories for all competitor locations, then enable the population density heat map to identify areas where:

• Population exists

• But no competitor territories reach

These areas often represent strong expansion opportunities, particularly when population density is high and coverage is limited.

From Coverage to Decision-Making

Bulk territory creation allows you to move from raw location data to a clear understanding of market structure.

Once you’ve identified:

• Where your network reaches (coverage)

• Where competitors operate (whitespace and pressure)

You can begin evaluating which locations are actually worth pursuing.

At this stage, the goal shifts from mapping → comparison and prioritization.

Comparing Candidate Locations

After narrowing your map to a smaller set of candidate locations, you can evaluate each territory more precisely by focusing on three core factors:

• Customer base — how much population exists within reach

• Competition — how many competitors are serving that population

• Economic strength — how strong the underlying market is

Together, these comprise three fundamental factors in predicting and selecting successful retail locations or franchise territories.

Where This Fits in Your Workflow

Bulk territory creation is typically the bridge between:

• Exploration (finding locations, mapping competitors)

• Evaluation (comparing territories and forecasting performance)

It allows you to move quickly from:

“Where are the locations?”
to
“Which of these actually works?”